nest

English Online Dictionary. What means nest‎? What does nest mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛst/
• Rhymes: -ɛst

Etymology 1

From Middle English nest, nist, nyst, from Old English nest, from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą, from Proto-Indo-European *nisdós (“nest”), literally "where [the bird] sits down", a compound of *ni (“down”) (whence also English nether) + the zero-grade of the root *sed- (“to sit”) (whence also English sit).

Noun

nest (plural nests)

1. A structure built by a bird as a place to incubate eggs and rear young.
2. A place used by another mammal, fish, amphibian or insect, for depositing eggs and hatching young.
3. A snug, comfortable, or cosy residence or job situation.
4. A retreat, or place of habitual resort.
5. A hideout for bad people to frequent or haunt; a den.
6. A home that a child or young adult shares with a parent or guardian.

7. (card games) A fixed number of cards in some bidding games awarded to the highest bidder allowing him to exchange any or all with cards in his hand.

8. (military) A fortified position for a weapon.

9. (computing) A structure consisting of nested structures, such as nested loops or nested subroutine calls.
   • 1993 August, Bwolen Yang et al., "Do&Merge: Integrating Parallel Loops and Reductions", in Languages and Compilers for Parallel Computing (workshop proceedings), Springer (1994), →ISBN, page 178:

     Our analysis to this point has assumed that in a loop nest, we are only parallelizing a single loop.

10. A circular bed of pasta, rice, etc. to be topped or filled with other foods.
11. (geology) An aggregated mass of any ore or mineral, in an isolated state, within a rock.
12. A collection of boxes, cases, or the like, of graduated size, each put within the one next larger.
13. A compact group of pulleys, gears, springs, etc., working together or collectively.
14. (vulgar, slang, now US) The pubic hair near a vulva or a vulva itself.

    Synonyms: beav, beaver

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:nest.

Derived terms

Related terms

• nestling

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English nesten, nisten, from Old English nistan, nistian, from Proto-West Germanic *nistijan (“to nest, build a nest”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian näästje (“to nest”), Dutch nesten (“to nest”), German Low German nüsten (“to nest”), German nisten (“to nest”).

Verb

nest (third-person singular simple present nests, present participle nesting, simple past and past participle nested)

1. (intransitive, of animals) To build or settle into a nest.
2. (intransitive) To settle into a home.

3. (intransitive) To successively neatly fit inside another.

4. (transitive) To place in, or as if in, a nest.
5. (transitive) To place one thing neatly inside another, and both inside yet another (and so on).

6. (intransitive) To hunt for birds' nests or their contents (usually "go nesting").

Translations

See also

• nest on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Nest in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• NETs, Sten, tens, TENS, nets, sent., ENTs, Ents, ents, snet, sent

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch nest, from Old Dutch nest, from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą. Cognate with English, German Nest etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛst/
• Hyphenation: nest
• Rhymes: -ɛst

Noun

nest n (plural nesten, diminutive nestje n)

1. a nest (place to hatch young, especially bird structure)

   Het vogeltje bouwt zijn nest in het riet. ― The little bird builds its nest among the reeds.

2. (colloquial) a nest (residence; retreat; hideout; home)

   Hij groeide op in een rood nest. ― He grew up in a left-wing household.

3. (colloquial) one's bed

   Kom uit je nest, ’t is hoogste tijd! ― Get out of bed, it’s high time!

4. (derogatory) a nasty, ill-behaving or pretentious child; a brat

   Wat een verwend nest! ― What a spoiled, pretentious brat!

5. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) a piece of junk; rubbish

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: nes
• Negerhollands: nest, nes
• → Papiamentu: nèshi, nèishi, nesji

Elfdalian

Etymology

From Old Norse næstr, cognate with Swedish näst, English next.

Preposition

nest

1. by, near

Latgalian

Etymology

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *neśtei. Cognates include Latvian nest and Lithuanian nešti.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈnʲæsʲtʲ]
• Hyphenation: nest

Verb

nest (reflexive nestīs)

1. (transitive) to carry

Conjugation

References

• M. Bukšs, J. Placinskis (1973) Latgaļu volūdas gramatika un pareizraksteibas vōrdneica, Latgaļu izdevnīceiba, page 167
• Nicole Nau (2011) A short grammar of Latgalian, München: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 44

Latvian

Etymology

Cognate with Lithuanian nèšti (“to carry, bring”), see there for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nest/

Verb

nest (transitive, 1st conjugation, present nesu, nes, nes, past nesu)

1. (transitive) to carry
2. (transitive) to bring

Conjugation

Derived terms

Middle English

Alternative forms

• neste, nist, nyst, neest

Etymology

From Old English nest, from Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛst/

Noun

nest (plural nestes)

1. nest

Descendants

• English: nest
• Scots: nest
• Yola: naesth

References

• “nest, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Middle High German

Alternative forms

• neste, nist, niste

Etymology

From Old High German nest, from Proto-Germanic *nistą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nɛs̠t/

Noun

nest n (genitive singular nestes, plural nest or nester)

1. nest

Declension

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Adverbial form of neste

Adverb

nest

1. next, second

   nest største - second largest

Derived terms

• nestleder

References

• “nest” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Adverbial form of neste

Adverb

nest

1. next, second

   nest eldst - second oldest

References

• “nest” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *nest, from Proto-Germanic *nestą. Cognate with Old Church Slavonic гнѣздо (gnězdo, “nest”), Old Irish net (“nest”), Latin nīdus (“nest”), Sanskrit नीड (nīḍa, “nest”), Albanian neth (“sprout, bud”), Old Armenian նիստ (nist, “sitting; seat; property”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nest/

Noun

nest n

1. nest

Declension

Related terms

• nestlian
• nistan

Descendants

• Middle English: nest, neste, nist, nyst, neest
  • English: nest
  • Scots: nest
  • Yola: naesth

Welsh

Alternative forms

• gnest
• gwnest

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /nɛsd/, [nɛst]
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /neːsd/, [neːst], /nɛsd/, [nɛst]
• Rhymes: -ɛsd

Verb

nest (not mutable)

1. second-person singular preterite colloquial of gwneud